An annual fellowship of $5,000 has been endowed at the Mathematics Department in the Faculty of Science by Bilsel Alisbah, son of the late Professor Orhan Alisbah. Bilsel Alisbah is a Senior Lecturer at Bilkent's Faculty of Business Administration.
According to Bilsel Alisbah, the Orhan Alisbah Fellowship will serve two major purposes: a contribution to furthering the cause of excellence at Bilkent's Math Department and to honor the memory of the late Prof. Alisbah, one of modern Turkey's early and leading mathematicians.
The fellowship will be granted each year to one outstanding graduate student, who will receive $3,000, and one outstanding undergraduate student, who will receive $2,000. Both must be students in the Mathematics Department at Bilkent. Dean Hasan Erten will chair a committee, including the Math Department chair, two Department faculty members, and a faculty member from another department, which will determine the fellowship recipients. The fellowships are granted for 12 months.
Orhan Alisbah (1910-1989) saw his role toward his students and the university not just as a teacher of math but as a developer of good and decent human beings. This was consistent with his approach to his own life; he considered himself a citizen of the world with an obligation to help the world become a better place. To this end, he was active in the Human Rights Commission and the UNESCO Committee in Turkey.
A ceremony to mark the establishment of the fellowship will be held at the Faculty of Science on Wednesday, December 9, at 3:30 p.m. in B-Block, room Z-14 Participants will include Bilsel Alisbah and this year's fellowship recipients, who will be named at the ceremony.
